I decided after checking various factors of the weather setup that it was a potential tornadic day
and so decided to do a local chase.  As I recall capes were 4000+, LI's were -10 to -12, there was a
low to the nw of AUS (west of ACT I believe), and there was also a convergence zone with cu growing
on vis sat building west of the I35 / hwy 183 corridor.  Mid winds were not too strong, and uppers
were fair, but there seemed to be enough pockets of helicity that given the huge instability it
should at least be... entertaining.

I think I left around 3:30 or 4:30 - I forget. Anyway I shot straight north from AUS up hwy 183 and
forked north at the town of Lampasas on hwy 281. At the time I left there was a storm out west
toward Gillespie and Mason counties that I thought might eventually hit my house. Along the way I had
stopped when getting gas at Smoky Mo's barbque for a sandwich on the trip. As I walked back to the
vehicle there was ice poured out all over the parking lot from someone dumping their cooler. 'Ooh' -
I thought, 'bad karma'.  I was thinking this was a sign that I might drive into a big hail core. Now
I'm not saying I'm superstitious, but this day it wouldn't take a lot to make that come true. The
entire drive I could see storms and anvils in the distance both west and north.  Sometime after
passing through Lampasas I activated the dash cam and started recording the large cell (B2 - storm
attribute table) with it's extending wallcloud that was showing a meso and 4.5" hail!

Pretty much this was the dominant strongest storm in Tx at the time. I continued north passed
Adamsville as the sky darkened ahead and the anvil spread overhead to my south and east. Finally I
could click the AC down a notch or two as the cloud cover was cooling things down. I drove up to
probably about 4 miles south of the intersection with E/W hwy 84 which heads to Gatesville.  I turned
the dashcam north and west toward the wallcloud. It was going through various stages of change, and
showed some vertical motion. To my west the trailing flank and other cells were dropping rain
curtains and likely hail.  I was thinking I was going to get cored because hwy 84 was already being
overrun, and cells west were encroaching east and not that far off. While videotaping here I was
privileged to a nice lightning show of intense bolts hitting the ground near the wallcloud.  I stayed
as long as I could but it was clear that the storm which had been moving ESE was now moving definite
SE and perhaps SSE.  I retreated a couple of times turning around to film. The inflow portion of the
storm was surging out and rapidly moving almost south now like it was chasing me.  I finally pulled
over on the east side of the road and turned to videotape, and noticed an elderly couple across the
hwy from me under the awning of an old stone gas station.  I believe it may have been abandoned, but
seemed they were getting gas so maybe not. I couldn't believe it. This was not the place to be on a
motorcycle.

I drove across the street, pulled up (facing south) and rolled the passenger window down.  I talked
to the elderly gentleman and explained that the storm near his location was showing 4.5" hail, and
was under a tornado watch. I then showed our location on GPS, and the storm location. He mentioned
his destination was through the core, but that he'd probably stay put and wait out the storm.  I
started showing him the radar of the storm versus location, and about that time the winds abruptly
kicked in at probably 60+. I didn't even have time to say 'bye' as the instincts hit the gas peddle
and 'away we go' trying to outrun the high wind blasts which had quickly caught up to me.  Probably
it was RFD, not sure, but I wasn't very far from the wall cloud just NNW of the station. I suppose a
cyclonic outer circulation would have blown across the road in this way as well. Either way just
minutes after I bailed out from the gas station they issued a Tornado warning for 7 miles northwest
of Adamsville and headed for the town. I was pretty much at the main show of the day as I think the
Tarrant county storm didn't hit until near or after dark.

I videotaped at this time, but the area north was now swallowed in rain so there wasn't a lot of
detail. On radar the storm had swallowed many of the smaller storms and had become huge - about
taking up an entire Tx county or more! I drove into the town of Lampasas and took hwy 190 toward
Copperas Cove which was also one of the destinations in the warning. I was hoping to beat the
tornadic portion.  It turned out it wasn't an issue as the storm soon after began dying into
nothingness. Rainbows were shining in the sunlight. I think it probably died because convective
inhibition was supposed to increase near and after 0Z according to the RUC, and a small mid level
wave had been showing passing through leaving the storm in subsidence I believe.

Checking SPC logs apparently the area I was in near the tornado warning was hit hard by high winds
and knocked over many trees. Tornado or straight line winds...hard to say which.  Here are some
notes from the log:

2240 UNK 5 N ADAMSVILLE  LAMPASAS  TX 3137 9817 NUMEROUS TREES DOWN ON ALONG 10-12 MILES OF 281
BETWEEN EVANT AND ADAMSVILLE (FTW)
2240 UNK EVANT CORYELL  TX 3148 9815 NUMEROUS TREES DOWN ALONG 281 NEAR EVANT (FTW)
2258 UNK SAN SABA  SAN SABA  TX 3120 9872 POWER LINES AND TREES DOWN FROM SAN SABA AND THROUGHOUT THE
COUNTY (SJT)
2258 70 15 S HAMILTON  HAMILTON  TX 3149 9812 TREES AND LIMBS DOWN IN EVANT (FTW)
2321 595 10 SW GATESVILLE  CORYELL TX 3134 9785 TREES DOWN ACROSS ROAD ON FM 1883 AT KING RANCH RD
(FTW)
2330 UNK 6 SE HAMILTON HAMILTON TX 3164 9805 NUMEROUS LARGE TREES DOWN AT FM 932 IN ALEMON (FTW)
2344 UNK 3 N ADAMSVILLE  LAMPASAS  TX 3134 9817 TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN 3 MILES NORTH OF
ADAMSVILLE (FTW)
 

Tornado Extreme Storm Chase